{My pictures were taken with a Kodak EasyShare DX4530. Dan’s pictures were taken with a Cannon Rebel EOS with a 70-200 2.8L lens. All pictures within this blog are resized, which sometimes doesn’t do the pictures justice.}

Wildseed Farms is a nice place to go for taking pictures during the height of Wildflower season.


They have all kinds of little places like this scattered about the grounds along with stuff for sale that a gardener might want.


This is the first field we encountered. There are tons of wildflowers in the foreground with paths to walk about on. All that red in the background is another field that is primarily composed of Red Corn Poppies.

I think Dan thought he was in photographer’s heaven when we walked into the wildflower field. Why? Because…


Here he is sitting or kneeling down. I walked further along the path and…


caught him lying down. I walked even further along the path and…


caught him standing up.

My camera takes decent pictures. I took these close-up shots while we were in the Wildflower field.



Paintbrushes


Bluebonnets and Prairie Verbena


Alamo Fire aka Maroon Bluebonnets

However, Dan’s pictures... Oh my! They are wonderful!



Paintbrushes


Bluebonnets with a lone Red Corn Poppy



Alamo Fire and Bluebonnets


Clueless as to what these are! :-)

Before we left the wildflower field, an old lady asked Dan to take her picture in front of some wildflowers – shamelessly flirted with him. Hmmppffhh!!!


Oh wait, that old lady is me! I don’t think I look like that. I still picture myself as 25 years old. Where in the heck did time go?

Anyway, we moved on and explored the rest of the farm. There were fields in sort of a U-shape and most of the fields were roped off. In the middle of that U-shape, they were growing various flowers in rows. As I mentioned before, a field of Poppies followed the wildflower field.

(picture by me)

This field, to me, is so beautiful. And, it never fails to remind me of a poem called In Flanders Fields. It always seems to bring on a reflective mood.

Anyway, I gazed upon flowers being grown in rows while we wandered. We came upon some that just brought memories of Maine, my Gram, and my Mother. I was thrilled and begged Dan to take some pictures because my camera would not be able to do justice.


We know them as Johnny Jump-ups. And, they’re called the same at the farms. Supposedly, they can be grown in our zone. But, we’ve never had any success. According to the sign they had in front of the rows of plants, I found out that the soil needs to be “rich and well-drained”, grown in “partial shade to full sun” and that they’re “drought tolerant”. I need to try growing them again someday. At least, I know where I can get seeds when I’m ready to try.

Something caught Dan’s attention along the inside of roped off fields. Or, is that outside? It’s where we can walk anyway.


I think this is the best shot I took so far, don’t you? :-)

Anyway, I believe that it was this that caught his attention.


It’s a very interesting white strain of the bluebonnet.

And then, I think the tables turned on me. Dan wanted me to lie down in the sandy dry dirt so that he could take pictures of me.

I actually didn’t mind. I am a very willing model most of the time. However, this picture of me… Ugh! How can he think I’m beautiful? I don’t get it. This is not me. Where is the 25 year woman I once knew?

Anyway, We came across another field of poppies -- a variety of them.


I shot some pictures from different angles and I really liked how this one turned out.

We were soon finished with the place and took a drive north of Fredricksburg – along Willow City Loop. This particular drive is absolutely spectacular. If any of you happen to be in this area in the peak of wildflower season, it’s a must see thing to do.

Dan let me have his camera while he drove. He gave me a few pointers and then let me loose. It wasn’t easy because we were moving constantly and technically, we’re not supposed to stop or pull over. Many people did this anyway against the owners of the private properties wishes.

The last few pictures here are the ones I shot using his camera through an open window. The bottoms of most tended to be blurry. That is because we were moving. And, it was a bumpy road! It was NOT easy. I quit after awhile, hoped I got a few good shots, and just enjoyed the scenery.





Whoa! How did this last one get into the group of pictures? A strange lady having fun taking pictures of herself in a truck’s side mirror. How weird can she be? Oh wait. That is me again. Sheesh. :-)

We arrived at Lost Maples around 9:00am. We probably missed the great color of Fall by a weekend. But, it was still very nice. We went hiking on the Maple Trail first. I do not remember ever being on this trail.

This is one of the first pictures I took along this particular trail. Dan is examining and taking pictures of the leaves on the tree.



He (Dan) is always looking for ways to improve his photography and challenges himself to do certain things. He sees things that I often do not see. Like this:



We continued along the trail. It's amazing how the landscape changes up here at Lost Maples - it is so gorgeous! This is one side of the creek. Dan was down there taking pictures of I don't know what. LOL. :-)



And, here is the opposite side of the same creek:



Dan looked down where he was standing (in the above picture) and noticed something that interested him and proceeded to try to photograph it. I didn't have a clue to what he was attempting to photograph.



This is one of the pictures he took:



When he was done, he told me what was over there - a baby frog. I immediately had to go over there and see it! I adore frogs - don't ask me why. Here I am examining the frog. Dan snapped it without my knowledge. If I had known, I would have tried to cover up - some skin is showing. :-)



And, here is a picture I took of the frog with my camera, which has closeup capabilities. I would so love to get a wonderful camera with super macro capabilities!



The land is forever changing around here. I loved the combination of the field and the mountains. This picture doesn't do justice to the wonderful colors and scenery - the trees in the distance (within the picture) seem so dark. In reality, it was an absolutely gorgeous view.



We finished hiking along the Maple Trail and returned to the truck. By this time, I was warm; so, I dumped my red jacket. (Dan dumped his blue jeans Jacket.) We then proceeded to hike along the East Trail up toward the pond. Dan took a pair of binoculars because hawks often roost along a canyon wall. It didn't take us long to reach this particular spot. Here is Dan hunting for hawks. :-)



Again, the trail's scenery constantly changes. There was a portion along the trail that was absolutely gorgeous. My camera couldn't do it justice. However, here is a shot that Dan took that somewhat conveys the beauty along this portion of the trail.



We reached the pond area rather quickly. I think both of us were hungry! We decided to rest and have our lunch there. I got cold in the shade rather quickly and decided to eat in the sun near the edge of the pond. I soon noticed the dragonflies and damselflies flying about. I love dragonflies! It's amazing how many varieties there are out there. Anyway, I saw some red dragonflies and tried to snap pictures of those - they would not cooperate. Darn it! However, the blue damselflies seemed less fearful and one actually let me get real close to him for me to snap a picture. My camera must have been six to eight inches from the thing - I was in awe!



Dan had his lunch in the shade and soon had a friend nearby. I watched that bird get mighty close to him (Dan). The bird was fearless! Of course, Dan is ready to snap pictures. It turned out to be a Tufted Titmouse.





We finished lunch and then headed back down the trail. I find it interesting how you always notice things you missed the first time around. I saw this plant and was like "what in the world"? Of course, I had to snap a picture of it.



We stopped along an area of the creek which had a mini-waterfall. Dan wanted to take pictures of it; so, he went off trail a bit and down below the falls. I sat down near the top patiently waiting for Dan to do his thing. The falls was absolutely gorgeous close up. I tried to capture it from my point of view; but, all the pictures I took stunk - I sure wish I had a better camera!



We stopped near the trail head to get a picture of the both of us against a tree with fall colors. Dan used the timer on his camera. It was so funny and scary at the same time! The first time he ran down to sit with me, I was a little scared that he would slip and fall - there were tons of leaves on the ground. However, it was funny to watch him run carefully towards me!

It took three tries before getting a decent picture. The first attempt, Dan was adjusting his hat and the camera snapped a picture with his hand near his face - not good. The second attempt, he didn't quite make it and I was busting a gut (laughing). The third attempt, finally! A decent picture. He also took a fourth just in case and that also turned out good. Dan was sort of out of breath by the time we were done and I was just amused by it all.



We then packed up the truck and left Lost Maples. By this time, it was around 1:00pm. We headed toward one of my favorite places in the world (so far), Garner State Park. It didn't take us long to get there from Lost Maples.

When we arrived, the area that we usually camp at was closed for the fall/winter. So, we went exploring old Garner. When we approached the first campground, both of us exclaimed in amazement. It was "Ghost Garner" - not many campsites were occupied. We saw deer grazing in the campsite area and were amazed simply because it was broad daylight. We reached the dam area and parked. We explored a little bit. When we reached the area below the dam, Dan discovered his batteries were dead -- he was not a happy camper. He wanted to take pictures so badly!



Again, it was so quiet and just simply gorgeous. The water was so clear - it was absolutely amazing. The water is usually murky from all the people swimming and muddying it up by stirring up the river bottom. This is a snapshot just above the dam.



We wandered up the river a bit. I was constantly amazed at how clear the river was. And, it was absolutely peaceful - hardly any people were around. There were some huge ducks resting near the banks of the river. They let me approach rather closely to take some pictures. When I got too close, one of them started up a fuss. I was disappointed with how my pictures of them came out; so, I 'm not showing them.

Dan pointed out a spot that was perfect for taking pictures of the river, trees and Old Baldy. He pointed it out to me and tried to give me some pointers. But, my camera is mighty limited! The sky got washed out in this picture - it was a beautiful blue. Oh well. Better than nothing! :-)



We decided to head back to the truck. Both Dan and I noticed that the trees were really old and big along this section of the river. I told Dan to go stand by one and he was jokingly asking if he should be a "tree hugger". I laughed and said that would make an interesting picture. It certainly shows the size of the tree.



I wanted to take one last picture before we leave - a picture of both of us. My camera does have a timer. This is the first time I ever used it (the timer). I set it on a tripod I have and attempted to take a picture of both of us against one of those huge trees. It didn't quite work out as well as I wanted. The flash wasn't powerful enough and for some reason, I was blurry. Oh well.




We then left Garner and headed for home. We arrived home around 4:30pm. I was amazed that we could take a day trip to both Lost Maples and Garner - we have never been able to do this before. It sure did feel strange only traveling a couple of hours - we're so used to having to travel five or six hours just to reach Garner.

I had a wonderful day. And, so did Dan, with the exception of the batteries in his camera dying on him. :-)